As David Beckham eyes Miami, boosters bring pressure to move quickly in Orlando

The Orlando City Soccer Club and Mayor Buddy Dyer may have come up with a Plan B to get a new taxpayer financed stadium in Orlando: build it in two phases.

Despite a funding shortfall, Dyer wants to move ahead with a stadium that's scaled back but still plush enough to help Orlando's minor-league soccer team become the next Major League Soccer expansion franchise.

At the same time, the project is still dependent on hotel taxes to help pay the tab, and Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs is moving cautiously in the face of mounting pressure to sign off on a stadium deal.

•Sources familiar with the negotiations say the franchise fee to join MLS has increased to an estimated $70 million from the soccer team, stretching the club's bankroll and putting more pressure on the county to help pay for a new stadium. Team owners would not confirm that figure and say they do not comment on "rumors and speculation."

•Celebrity soccer star David Beckham is eyeing Miami to launch his own MLS franchise. That could put Orlando in a race with its South Florida neighbor.

"The team has had really good meetings with the league," Dyer said. "The league is very, very interested in getting this done, but the time frame is becoming extremely critical."

The Orlando City Lions play in the publicly owned FloridaCitrus Bowl, which is about to undergo a $200 million renovation. Team executives say a soccer-specific stadium is a prerequisite to join MLS. After a botched expansion in 1998 that led to a contraction four years later, the league favors a model it thinks works: smaller, more intimate stadiums with roofed seating areas, situated near downtown, that generate revenues controlled by the team.

The initial plan called for a $110 million stadium, with $30 million coming from the team; $30 million in state sales-tax rebates; $25 million from the county; and $25 million from the city, mostly in land costs. But the Legislature failed to approve the sales-tax money.

Dyer said the new preferred plan is to split the project into two phases — the same approach that allowed construction to begin on the then-stalled Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts. The first phase would cost about $70 million, Dyer said, not including land costs of $12 million to $15 million.

To bring the cost down, representatives of the city and the team are considering several options: cutting the size of the roof to leave the end zones exposed; leaving some office and locker-room space unfinished; reducing the number of club areas from three to two; and delaying the installation of 500 to 1,000 seats in one end zone.

"That gets you in that range without sacrificing the quality of the stadium," Dyer said, adding that Orlando would seek funding from the Legislature again next year to complete the second phase of construction.

Lions President Phil Rawlins was tight-lipped about the stadium plans, saying building in two phases is "just one of a range of options we are looking at."

The team's front office is focused on negotiations with Mayor Jacobs, who has not committed hotel-tax funding for the project. The Lions have launched a social-media campaign urging fans to contact city and county commissioners to express support.

Jacobs said she has made several requests of the team:

•Promise that the stadium would host two all-star games during the next five or six years, as well as other international games to "make it a more compelling argument" to tap tourist-tax dollars to fund its construction, she said.

•Reduce the scale and expense of the stadium, possibly by developing it in two phases.

•Kick in more money. "They are absolutely committed to doing that if we go forward," she said.

Jacobs stressed no decisions have been made: "This is [an effort to] fast-track a decision, not a fast track to build it." She added, however, "There are some very real timing issues here. If we consider it, we ought to be able to consider it quickly."

Some of that urgency comes from the specter of David Beckham considering starting a team in Miami with backing from billionaire businessman Marcelo Claure.

Beckham's player contract with MLS contained a provision in which he could add an expansion team for a $25 million fee, significantly less than what Orlando City or any other city will be expected to pay.

The Lions' lead investor, Brazilian businessman Flávio Augusto da Silva, said in an email that time is running short to bring a franchise to Orlando.

"If the people and the politicians want this to happen, we must agree on a deal now while we still have a clear advantage," he wrote. "The competition from cities like Miami and Atlanta will only get stronger the longer we leave this, and Central Florida's chance to do this will be gone. We don't want tobe watching MLS games on TV from Miami."

Another Lions owner, Orlando attorney Scott Bates, said the team is doing everything it can to seal a deal.